LAUSD Halts Home iPad Use After Students Hack Security Locks

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LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A $1 billion program to distribute iPads to students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) was under increased scrutiny Wednesday after reports that some devices were hacked for non-school-related purposes.

KNX 1070’s Pete Demetriou reports hundreds of kids at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights and two other campuses breached the security locks within a week of receiving the tablets.

Students at Roosevelt, Westchester High, and the Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills disabled security measures on their iPads to access Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other unauthorized sites, according to the Daily News.

Software installed on the devices by the district locked down the iPads and alerted officials to potential tampering, the Daily News reported.

LAUSD officials have halted the use of the district’s iPads at students’ homes use until further notice and are considering installing additional security software on the tablets, according to reports.

One Roosevelt student said he doesn’t expect that solution to last long in the face of determined tinkering and hacking.

“[It would] probably be a challenge, but the kids will probably find a way,” he said.

The three affected campuses were among the schools tapped to participate in the first phase of a controversial LAUSD plan to equip every student district-wide with one of the nearly $700 tablets.

LAUSD Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Dr. Jaime Aquino, who has served under John Deasy since 2011 and was put in charge of the iPad distribution plan, is expected to resign at the end of December, officials said earlier this month.